MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey went under the knife to repair a damaged meniscus last Friday.
This Friday, you could have hardly known by looking at him.
The Latest on Miami Dolphins CB Jalen Ramsey
Ramsey was again a de facto coach on the defensive sideline, but this time he walked around without the assistance of crutches. And the bulky brace that had protected his repaired left knee had been replaced by a compression sleeve.
Does that mean that Ramsey is already ahead of schedule? Hard to say. But the optics are fantastic.
And it raises the possibility that Ramsey might beat his estimated four-month recovery period.
“When you’re out there and playing this game, you know, there’s always that ‘it’ factor, meaning it could eventually happen to you or anybody else,” Dolphins cornerbacks coach Sam Madison said of Ramsey’s injury Friday.
“You never want to see it, no matter who it is. I don’t care who it is, if it’s a rookie, a free agent, or if it’s one of your star players. It hurt, but, you know, the show must go on, and that’s what Jalen reiterated to the rest of the guys. He’s speculating that he’ll be back next week, but we’ll see what happens from there.
“But he’s still into it, and he’s the same with the young guys, whether he’s in the room or not, and he’s always around. So that’s really, really good to have him in the building and still communicating with us.”
However long Ramsey misses, the Dolphins should have enough depth to get by — assuming they avoid another major injury.
Kader Kohou, Noah Igbinoghene, Cam Smith, and Eli Apple are all in line for more work with Ramsey out.
On Friday, Madison discussed the Dolphins’ current depth situation at his position group.
- Madison on Smith, a rookie second-round pick: “When you look at the things that (general manager) Chris Grier and his staff do, you know, they try to talk to the defensive coordinator and look for players that, you know, simulate and have played in his type of scheme and, you know, tried to mirror guys and try to, you know, put guys in our laps and, and try to do the necessary work to find that right player.
“And, you know, Cam, he’s played a lot of different coverages throughout the course of his career, and he’s one of those people. He takes it very seriously. He wants to be good, and just he wants to put his best foot forward every single play, every single down. It’s just been fun throwing him in different situations throughout the course of the camp, and he’s handled it very well.
“I mean, he’s a true defensive back because, when you’re talking about giving up a play or coming up with a play, he has a short memory span, and then he gets right back out there and gives it his all.
“So it’s just going to be fun, you know, first have an opportunity to work with him and then, secondly, see exactly how far he can go and what he can be. So we just want to keep working on all the little small details of the defense and, you know, a lot of these guys coming from college is a lot of terminology and the defense coordinator that you’re working with and playing for. They want to hear their verbiage, and a lot of these guys have to be able to get over that hump and do that.”
- Madison on Igbinoghene: “Noah has been working extremely hard. He’s been working well every single day. We put him in different situations, just mixing and matching a lot of different people because you never know what could happen in a practice, in a preseason game, and even going on through the season.
“He’s always one of those guys that’s always going to be in shape. He’s always going to be prepared, he’s always going to be ready. Now, you know, he just has to go out and then, you know, take that next step of becoming who Noah wants to become. We have all the expectations high for him, and now he just got to go out and just set the expectation for himself and go out there and compete.”
- Madison on Kohou’s development from Year 1 to 2: “You know, when you’re a young player coming into the league, you really don’t have any expectations. You really just want to go in there, and you want to see where you fit in and how this scheme really works with you and for you.
“He’s done a very good job. I mean, throughout the course of his career playing at a small school, he’s had to endure a lot and go through a lot, and the same thing as right now, you know, when you’re talking about going out and having the year that he had last year, having to play with a cast and, you know, fighting through all the ups and the downs and yet and still you never hear him complain.
“He just comes to work, and he’s always ready to go. So I can throw him in different situations, and he’s a strong-minded player. And, you know, he just goes out there and does his job, and he does it very well.
“But, you know, again, when you have rookies that were successful the first year, you don’t really know what you’re gonna get from him this year, and he’s just picking up and piggy-backing off the same thing that he did last year.
“So, really just excited about him and, you know, really, you know, having the production that he had last year, everybody in the league really knows who he is now, and, you know, we will see what the next step is for him.”